The concept of a vacuum system to collect otherwise wasted flour and return it to a hopper is broadly known in prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,963,005 and 2,963,994. Flour duster-sifter means, broadly speaking, are also known in U.S. Pat. No. 2,633,242.
Despite these prior art teachings, a need exists for an efficient, economical and practical dusting flour recycling system adaptable to industry standard equipment for dividing and rounding bakery products and aging and delivering the products, such as rolls, to pans for baking.
Under present practice, at the point of transfer between the two standard machines where the raw dough balls are traversing an inclined zigzag chute, large amounts of dusting flour is sifted onto the dough balls to prevent them from sticking to surfaces of the transfer chute. The excess dusting flour is caught rather haphazardly in an open catch pan below the transfer chute. Occasionally, a dough piece will miss transferring and fall into the catch pan along with dough particles which leak from under the rounder bars of the standard equipment. Because of these factors, most of the recovered dusting flour is thrown away. Furthermore, the air surrounding the standard machinery is heavily charged with flour and is breathed in by workers which is hazardous to health and also creates unsanitary surroundings.
In light of the above, the objective of this invention is to satisfy the existing need in the art for a dusting flour recycling system which can be adapted at comparatively low cost to the industry standard machinery which presently lacks any such system. By doing so, the invention provides a means for recycling and using valuable flour which is ordinarily lost while greatly improving the quality of the air in the vicinity of the machine.